Mandira Bedi

Back in the fast lane

Mandira Bedi’s career began with a bang on August 15, 1994, with India’s first daily soap Shanti. She did 780 episodes of the serial as its main protagonist and carried the soap on her shoulders. While Shanti was on air, she started doing her second assignment which was also a daily soap called Aurat. Then followed the daily talk show Aap Ki Shanti. These three shows kept Mandira busy for five-and-a-half years as she used to shoot throughout the month.

But after nearly six years of hectic shooting schedules, four months ago Mandira took it a little easy. Not that she disappeared from the tele-screen completely. She had one serial on air Main on Star Plus - which required her to shoot for just five days in a month. So life was great as after six years of literally living in the studios, she was trying to adjust to the slow pace of life at sweet home. She also thought it to be a good opportunity to plan out her career in the direction she wanted to and Mandira says her husband also told her to use the opportunity to rework her priorities.

There was an offer to direct a stand-off episode of a series and Mandira says she was quite excited about going behind the camera. But neither did the easy-paced life last long, nor did she direct the show. First Ardhangini happened of which she did one story of 22 episodes lasting one month. And then she started shooting for Anand Rai’s Tamanna and Irfan Khan’s Janam Samjha Karo. And now with three shows on air, Mandira is back into thick of things once again.

Main which revolves around the life of a superstar who has misused many people in his quest for stardom, has Mandira playing the superstar’s mistress. But it is Tamanna (SABE TV) which she finds the most interesting show currently. Playing a Christian nurse married to a Hindu doctor much against the wishes of his mother, the serial revolves around a conflict between her and her mother-in-law. "It’s a nice role of a smiling, bubbly girl whose life changes completely after her husband’s death in an accident," gushes Mandira who is also seen in the role of an over-protected daughter of a powerful politician in Pratikaar on Sahara TV.
Janam Samjha Karo which is slated for telecast on Star Plus in July is a story of three couples facing marital problems where Mandira plays a South Indian girl married to a Sardar. Mandira says it’s neither a sitcom nor soap but a social dramas of inter-personal relationships which is being made with a lot attention to detailing. "It’s real pleasure working with Irfan.

He is not only a very good actor but an equally good director," she opines.

Six years ago, Mandira was a typical upper-middle class girl, all set to make a career in advertising. While she was doing a course in mass communication, she worked as an assistant with well known and filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar. That’s role. Mandira had no inclination towards acting but she says Adi insisted. "He didn’t take no for an answer from me," recalls Mandira admitting that Shanti changed her life totally.
By the time Aurat, her second serial, started Mandira was at the peak of her popularity and had also honed her acting skills. As the main protagonist in Aurat, She found her role challenging because the graph of the character was from the age of 16 to 65. "So it had a wide range of emotions and moods," says Mandira who equally enjoyed playing Shanti, a strong woman with motivation and drive but emotional and vulnerable at the same time.

As soon as Shanti ended and Aurat was on air, Mandira started anchoring the daily talk show Aap Ki Shanti which was broadly based on women’s issues. She admits that in the beginning she was not too comfortable and therefore it was really tough for her to anchor the show. "Initially I used to strictly follow the script but gradually I picked up the threads and started adding my own questions to the script. Though it was a huge challenge to host the show, I managed it well," says Mandira with a tinge of satisfaction in her soft voice and a brief smile on her pretty face.
If Aap Ki Shanti was huge challenge, so was Ghar Jamai, her first comedy serial. "Comedy requires perfect timing," she says. "Moreover, it has to have a good scrip. While I feel I did a reasonably good job at making people laugh, I think the serial lacked a good script. But on the whole it was a fairly satisfying experience."

She feels she has life as an actress and she is also enjoying her work. So acting will continue as long as she gets good work. And after that she will go behind the camera.

A.L. Chougule